Energy, Ethics and Lobby Bills Advance

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., center, accompanied by fellow Democratic House members, applaud during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2007 to discuss the work of the 110th Congress during their first 100 hours. From left are, Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y., Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H., Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., Pelosi, Rep. Charlie Wilson, D-Ohio and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (Susan Walsh - AP)

"One of the things that we were savagely critical of is the fact that the Republicans did not follow the regular order," said Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich. "Now it is time for us to get back and take ourselves seriously and proceed under the regular order."

For all its speed, the House legislation now enters the quicksands of the Senate, where Republicans already are displaying their ability to alter or slow down the Democratic agenda.

Senate Republicans, for instance, used the ethics legislation to extract a promise from Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada that the Senate would get a vote on legislation to give the president authority to challenge individual spending items for elimination.

Republicans also insisted on attaching $8.3 billion in small business tax breaks to a Senate version of minimum wage legislation. The legislation was written jointly by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and the committee's ranking Republican, Charles Grassley of Iowa. Reid has said he would support the tax breaks to pass the new wage floor. But House Democrats have objected, noting that tax legislation must originate in the House, with the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said Senate Democrats were essentially telling the House that Congress would not raise the minimum wage if it did not contain tax breaks.

"How are you going to explain that?" he asked. "I don't know what Baucus and Reid are talking about."

Senate Republicans also planned to press for different legislation dealing with college tuition. The House bill would cut in half the interest rates paid by college graduates for their need-based, federally subsidized loans. Republicans have argued that students would be better helped by expanding federal tuition grants.

If passed by the Senate, the prescription drug bill and the stem cell research bills also face presidential vetoes. The House vote margins were not sufficient to override a veto.

But the prescription drug bill may not even reach the president in its current form. Baucus and other senators want to scale back the scope of the House bill, by targeting the drugs for which the government would be permitted to bargain.

If the partisan friction were not enough, both parties face internal conflicts as well.

Several House and Senate Republicans have objected to President Bush's troop boosting plan for Iraq. Two Republican senators _ Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Olympia Snowe of Maine _ have signed on to a nonbinding resolution opposing the insertion of 21,500 new troops into the war.

Democrats are divided themselves, unable to agree on how to express their opposition to Bush. Some prefer a nonbonding resolution, while others in the House and Senate want more muscular legislation specifically limiting Bush's ability to act on his strategy.

In the House, Pelosi and some of her key committee chairmen were on a collision course over how to address global warming legislation. Pelosi wants to create a special committee to recommend legislation, at least duplicating work by committees that have jurisdiction on climate change issues.